


Petal's Edge

by Mi_Impossible



Series: Carry On Countdown 2018 [1]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Carry On Countdown (Simon Snow), Carry On Countdown 2018, Carry on Countdown Day 1, Curses, F/F, Flowers, Homophobia, Pixies, Prompt Fic, coc2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 12:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16744405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mi_Impossible/pseuds/Mi_Impossible
Summary: Keris hated flower shops. She should have known her day was going to be weird when she had the extreme urge to go into one.





	Petal's Edge

**Author's Note:**

> Ayyyy guess who forgot about carry on countdown until today, the literal day it begins?  
> Probably (definitely) won't do all of the days, but some of the prompts gave me good ideas, so I'll do a fair few by the end, probably.  
> It seems to mostly be a thing on tumblr, and I don't have a tumblr, but goddamnit I'll participate anyways.  
> Written for day one's prompt, flower shop AU.

Keris hated flower shops. She supposed most people thought of them as cheerful, but she found them downright dreary, no matter how bright the flowers were.

Flower shops reminded Keris of funerals and hospitals. Not particularly cheery. Every time she walked into a flower shop she couldn't help but wonder how many of the arrangements they sold went to hospitals and funeral homes. Flower shops were almost funeral homes for flowers, when one thought about it. All these beautiful flowers' lives taken for the sake of a pretty decoration that would last all of a week if the person who bought them was lucky.

Maybe flower shops weren't funeral homes for flowers since the flowers aren't quite dead yet in a flower shop. Flower shops were more like hospices for flowers.

Where flowers go to die.

The point was that Keris was not a fan of flower shops. She usually had very little reason to go into them, and therefore didn't avoid them or anything. (Hooray for only knowing straight girls and therefore _never_ having a girlfriend.) She didn't avoid them, but she _certainly_ didn't go out of her way to go into them.

That was why when Keris walked past a flower shop one day and was filled with the extreme urge to go in she was a little weirded out. She went in, though, because she had nothing else to do. All of her classes were done for the day, and she only had work in the morning on Mondays.

A little bell tinkled to announce Keris' presence as she opened the door. She peered around the shop. Flowers lined the walls, mostly in bouquets, some woven into wreaths or planted in little ceramic pots. There were shelves reaching the ceiling that were _also_ covered in flowers, forming uneven aisles down the length of the shop.

Keris tried to see the checkout counter through all the plants on the shelves. When she managed to make it out, it was empty.

"Hello! Welcome to Bunce Blossoms," a voice shouted from somewhere within the shop.

"Er, hi?" Keris called cautiously.

"Hello!" whispered a high-pitched voice directly next to Keris' ear.

Keris whipped her head around to look at the shelf next to her. She looked suspiciously at the orchid directly next to her ear.

The voice that had welcomed her spoke again. "Sorry, I'm in the back room, and things may fall over if I leave. If you _really_ need help, call me, but as it is I'll be out once you've chosen something!"

"Thanks..." Keris said, narrowing her eyes at the orchid.

Something moved.

Part of the flower Keris has thought was just another pistil or stamen (she had no idea which was which) unfolded until a tiny girl stood in its place. She was about the height of Keris' thumb, and covered in hot pink freckles in the same shade as her hair. That wasn't even the best part though. She had wings. Shimmery, see-through wings like a dragonfly's. The wings fluttered as the girl bounced over to the petal's edge and plunked herself down, her dangling legs swinging back and forth.

"I am _tripping_."

The tiny girl said, "You seem to be standing upright to me!"

"Okay! Tiny woman. With wings. Talking to me. Lives on flower. I am _leaving_. This is _exactly_ why I should never come to flower shops."

"I'm a pixie! " the pixie said enthusiastically. "My name is Trixie!"

Keris blinked at Trixie for a moment. "Trixie... The pixie."

"Yeah!"

"Good for you. I'm going to leave and pretend this never happened. Continue living on your orchid, Trixie, I won't stop you."

Trixie frowned. "I don't live here."

"You don't?"

Trixie shook her head, and the bells pinned into her pointed ears chimed as her head moved. "I'm cursed to sit on this petal until my true love comes and gives me true love's first kiss. Like a fairytale!"

"I dunno, if this were a fairytale you probably wouldn't be naked." Keris looked at Trixie skeptically.

"But it is and I am!"

Keris rolled her eyes. "So why were you cursed then?"

"Well... I think my mum was trying to make a point."

"Pixies have mothers?" Keris asked, brow furrowed.

"Of course we do, silly!" Trixie laughed, but then her face turned serious. "She told me I would never find true love among any species, let alone pixies, if I was a girl looking for a girl. I told her she was wrong, so to prove her point, she cursed me to this petal until my true love comes and frees me with true love's first kiss." Trixie had a dreamy look on her face as she said true love's first kiss, as though she truly believed in it. It was rather cute.

"How long have you been here?"

"This shop? Since this morning. My flower used to be outside," Trixie sighed. "I liked it better outside. All the flowers here are going to die, and that makes me sad."

"Me too," Keris said, with feeling. "But how long have you been cursed."

"Not sure! Maybe seventy years? Eighty?"

Keris choked on air. "And you still believe your true love will find you? You haven't lost all hope?"

Trixie nodded sort of sadly. "I had given up some hope. But you're here now!"

"Excuse me, _what_?" Keris asked, afraid she knew exactly where this was going.

"You! Only my true love can hear my voice through the curse!"

"You have _got_ to be joking." Keris said incredulously.

Trixie shook her head solemnly. The ear-bells jingled.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! But if you want proof, kiss me!"

"No. No way. I am not kissing an orchid pixie who is almost certainly a product of my overtired college brain." Keris started walking away down the aisle.

"Wait! _Please_ , wait! I don't want to be stuck here forever! I'm sick and tired of waiting!" Trixie wailed.

Keris turned back and looked at her. "Just one kiss?"

Trixie nodded.

"And if it doesn't work?"

Trixie looked sad. "You can leave and forget all about me."

"Alright," Keris said, steeling herself. "I'll do it."

"Yay!" Trixie leapt up and hovered a couple inches above the orchid, face just about in line with Keris' lips. "I'm ready!" Trixie closed her eyes and puckered her lips.

"Er, how do I kiss you? It's just, you're a lot smaller than me..."

"Just aim for my face as best you can!"

Keris took a deep breath in, closed her eyes, and felt her lips come into contact with what definitely felt like Trixie's tiny, angular pixie face. Except, it wasn't a pixie face anymore, it was a pair of very soft lips.

The shelf behind Keris had its structural integrity severely tested as she tumbled backwards into it out of shock. As she looked up, she was met with a very tall, long-limbed girl with pink hair, no longer winged, covered in pink freckles, squealing and running in place.

"It worked! I really worked! I mean, I knew it would, but -" Trixie cut herself off and grabbed Keris by the face, kissing her rather enthusiastically.

Keris made an intelligent noise somewhere along the lines of, "Mmmph!"

When Trixie and Keris broke apart, Keris blushed. "You're still naked."

Trixie looked down. "So I am!"

"You're _so_ lucky I'm wearing a trenchcoat today," Keris mumbled, taking off her jacket and handing it to Trixie.

Keris averted her eyes as Trixie struggled to put on the jacket. Trixie then picked up her orchid with one arm, took Keris' hand with her free hand, and giggled. (Keris had to admit, she was almost unsettlingly beautiful.) She dragged Keris to the checkout counter and yelled, "Ding ding ding!" jovially.

A short woman with glasses, purple hair and a nametag that proclaimed "Penelope!" walked out the door behind the counter. "Found everything you needed?"

Trixie grinned and turned to look at Keris. "Definitely," she said, putting the potted orchid down on the countertop.

"What do you intend to do with that flower?" Keris whispered into Trixie's ear.

There was a mischievous gleam in Trixie's eye as she looked at Keris. She turned and grinned at cashier Penelope. "Do you sell lighters here?"

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments always appreciated.


End file.
